The Quiet Resurrection of Lawful Access - An Analysis of Bill C-2

In May 2025, the federal government introduced Bill C-2, The Strong Borders Act, a sweeping proposal that included expanded lawful access powers. The bill would have permitted warrantless access to basic subscriber information, authorized secret ministerial directives to telecommunications providers, and required companies to build surveillance-enabling technologies into their systems. Civil society groups, legal scholars, and opposition MPs quickly criticized the bill as an overreach that threatened core privacy protections.

By October 2025, the government withdrew Bill C-2 and tabled a replacement bill, the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act (Bill C-12). Unlike its predecessor, Bill C-12 omitted the contested lawful access provisions. Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree maintained that this shift was not a retreat, framing it instead as a matter of legislative sequencing. Yet the timing and revisions suggest that public backlash, not strategy, drove the government’s recalibration. Civil liberties organizations welcomed the removal of the surveillance measures but warned that it reflected a delay, not an abandonment, of efforts to expand state access to personal information.

The controversy surrounding Bill C-2 also raised deeper questions about transparency and democratic accountability. The government introduced the bill without public consultation, without evidence justifying its surveillance powers, and packaged it within a broader border-security framework that risked obscuring its privacy implications. Public reaction was swift, and ultimately decisive.

This report explores what the Bill C-2 episode reveals about the trajectory of lawful access legislation in Canada and its implications for privacy, democracy, and civil liberties. It examines three key themes: the evolution of federal attempts to expand surveillance powers, the specific provisions proposed in Bill C-2, and what this legislative moment tells us about the current state of privacy rights and government oversight.